WarZone 1st Edition Capitol Sea Lion Hero (Neglected Model May ’18)

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WarZone 1st Edition Capitol Sea Lion Hero, Heartbreaker Hobbies

This model is another of my old 1st edition WarZone models. This time a Capitol Sea Lion Hero. Capitol of course being the USA-themed faction. The Sea Lions were… well, SEA Lions. SEA L ions. SEALs. See what they did there? Yeah, GW never had a monopoly on terrible puns for their figures and units. Anyway, speaking of terrible, I was never a fan of several of the ranges, particularly the 1st edition figures. Some of those were reeeeally rough. The Capitol range being one of those. However, mixed in there were a few rough gems. Here’s one of them.

WarZone 1st Edition Capitol Sea Lion Hero, Heartbreaker Hobbies

Basically, despite the gigantic moob-like slabs of beef across his chest, and his American Dad-level chin, this guy is a fun and well-sculpted enough rendition of the “Rambo” trope to have passed muster for me back then, so I picked him up. I don’t believe I got any Sea Lions at all. The idea was for this guy to be an Imperial Guard Catachan-style Captain. Hence the “C” command icons all over him and his gear.

WarZone 1st Edition Capitol Sea Lion Hero, Heartbreaker Hobbies

As you can see, he also sports a nWo Wolfpac logo on his shoulder pauldron. That is of course because I was right into wrestling at the time, and wrestling is a rich source of interesting logos. As far as figure use goes, he still works perfectly well as a Catachan-type Captain, but I could also use him as a pretty decent Sly Marbo. In fact, I think this figure is a better rendition of the character than the original figure, the kitbash-your-own example or even the redux model. Because if you’re unfamiliar with the character – Sly Marbo is Sly Stallone as John Rambo. Remember what I said about terrible puns? Yeap.

WarZone 1st Edition Capitol Sea Lion Hero, Heartbreaker Hobbies

So after a minor touch-up and rebasing, I’m actually in two minds as to whether to leave the figure as is. because respect the original paint. Or to repaint his hair black, the bandanna red, maybe replace the C on his pauldron with a Bullet Club logo and go full Marbo with him. His skin is orange enough, at least! 😉 I don’t actually have a Marbo figure of any kind after all. hmm…

What do you think?

44 thoughts on “WarZone 1st Edition Capitol Sea Lion Hero (Neglected Model May ’18)”

    • Thanks, IRO. He was a pleasant surprise, hidden in the old figure case I discovered him in. Didn’t need much work to get him up to standard, either – and the “Hey… he’d make a great Marbo!” was something else I didn’t expect to have. I must have painted him originally pre-Marbo’s introduction!

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      • I will at some stage need to start digging out my Imperial Guard, including the Catachans. I had a specific project for a bunch of those back around 2000 as well – which I still plan to do!

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      • Hey, they might take awhile to come to fruition, but the Orcs got done, the Iron Warriors are happening, the Minotaurs are happening… the Catachans are on that gigantic mental list. 😉

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      • I always thought you were pretty good with nutting down and getting a job done. I just assumed you had so many projects that they just piled up. What I mean is, I thought when you started a project you would stay at it, then start another on completion.

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      • No mate – quite the opposite. I’ve been the worst kind of hobby butterfly for decades now. It’s only recently that I’ve started to:
        1) make myself paint more – a LOT more – and
        2) buckle down and get some coherent shit done.

        Doesn’t mean all of X, Y or Z are finished, of course, but getting collections to the point of looking a bit like small but cohesive forces, and then a couple of the larger fantasy armies up to scratch.

        That’s why I have been doing these “neglected model” challenges – to make myself essentially “clean up” the piles of basically abandoned models I’ve left over the years. Sometimes it means adding another unit to some army or other thing I’ve “properly started”, and other times (like with all these WarZone models) it just means getting long-unfinished models over the line.

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      • Sometimes it is. I sometimes wonder if I’d ever finish any model if I didn’t make myself do it. That’s one reason I have so many unfinished and neglected models. It’s too easy for me to be distracted by the new shiny, so these days I try to use a “finish and replace” strategy for some models (finish two orcs, start two mode – or only have one Space Marine Squad on the desk even if I’d really rather be painting a different one. That way starting new models is a reward for finishing stuff.

        I also often pick out a couple of models that NEED to be the next ones finished “today or tomorrow” as a way to focus. Often it’s that forcing myself to do it that pushes me past the mental block that something might have. And that’s a thing that can occur simply through negative inertia – not having worked on something for ages.

        Of course, I also allow myself to paint something new or random every so often (as you’d have seen many times) because keeping it interesting is always important.

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  2. He looks suitably ramboish. I also feel a Manowar vibe. Excellent skintone and great freehands. Black hair and red hairband would drive the Rambo theme home, but I like his Mad Max appearance, too. Would also be a shame to overpaint those freehands.

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    • I hadn’t thought of the Manowar vibe, but now that you mention it, he would be perfect for the cover of a single release of Violence and Bloodshed or something like that \mm/

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    • Some good points. I think I’ll leave him alone – it’s often super easy to figure out what needs to be changed on these old models (no luminous green cables here, thankfully!) but occasionally there’s a “hmm.. ” moment as with this guy.

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  4. I was going to say he looks Catachan-esque, and he will make a great Catachan leader, but then you said it (great minds!)…on a side note…does he remind you of Dolph Lundgren in The Expendables?

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    • If you saw some of the garish crap I painted on otherwise-decently painted figures, you’d know why I do it. 😀
      This guy is an unusual exception, simply based on his likeness with the Rambo/Marbo character that didn’t exist when I originally painted him.

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  6. I really like the mini. Kinda looks like a Heroquest version of a mercenaries game. Thanks for linking all those pics of Sly Marbo. You’re so right, that mini looks more like Sly than any of the others.

    Changes? The only thing that stuck out to me at first, was the skin. It could be the lighting, but it looks too orange. I think the mini looks fine, but if I was to change one thing, that would be the only part.

    If there are Necromunda stats for Sly Marbo somewhere, then I might have to see if I can track down that model!

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    • I actually had that comic, back in the distant past. I wonder if I have another of this model unpainted somewhere? I picked up a fair bit of clearance WarZone when it reached the end days.

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  8. I’m finding that there are indeed some hidden gems in that range after picking up a squad of Capital Commandos on Ebay about six months ago and needing to find out what the hell they actually were!

    Interesting that you chose Wolf Pack NWO colours, and not original black and white – kind of makes me think that, if you’re going to repaint him, Bullet Club Elite imagery might be the way to go, rather than the standard for the stable.

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    • Well, this model was originally painted back in ’98 or so, so the choices then were between Hall/Nash/Sting/Luger/Konnan or Hogan/The Disciple/Stevie Ray/Steiner/Buff/Vincent/etc. Which would you have chosen? 😉

      Aesthetically, the Black and White looks better for the nWo logo, and once I finish some rebasing there’ll be a few more nWo logos from back in the day posted up here.
      You might like this dreadnought, though.

      Dreadtober 2017 Completion #2: Mentor Legion Dreadnought


      Which models are the Capitol Commandos? I googled them (I can’t remember much of what anything was/is called) but couldn’t find them.

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